Locking wheels nuts help to prevent the theft of your alloy wheels. Not only are they a visual deterrent, they are extremely difficult to remove, and more often than not, people damage their alloys when they attempt to remove the nut without the proper key.
This course of action is totally avoidable of course, with some expert assistance from a professional locking wheel nut removal service, nuts are removed with hardly any effort and alloys are left pristine afterwards. Some people are stubborn, they try to save money by doing a ‘DIY’ wheel nut removal, with disastrous consequences.
Without doubt, unless you know what you are doing you can and will damage your alloy wheels if you attempt to remove a locking wheel nut without using the right tools. Plenty of horror stories can be found on the internet, through online motoring forums, where people have tried and failed to remove their vehicle’s wheel nuts with little success.
Classic examples include:
• Using wrenches to force the nut
• Trying ‘specialist’ lubricants to loosen the nut
• Heating the nuts up using a blowtorch
• Attempting to remove the nut using the wrong wheel nut key
Any of the above methods will invariably lead to a failed wheel nut removal. Try them and you will only cause more damage which will, in turn, lead to a greater expense.
It makes you wonder if it’s worth fitting locking wheel nuts to your car’s alloys if it’s going to cause such a problem, what reasons could you possibly want to fit them in the first place.
Why fit locking wheels nuts?
Actually, if you think about it, you can understand why people fit locking wheel nuts to alloys. Not only is it inconvenient to have your wheels stolen, the rims are expensive to replace, depending on the type fitted, this could equate to thousands of pounds, especially when you consider the cost of each alloy and the tyres fitted to it, which themselves are expensive to buy.
Preventative measures will help to solve this problem. Fit a set of locking wheel nuts to alloy wheels and they’re not going anywhere without the right key, they’ll be well protected at all times.
This is fine as long as you keep your locking wheel nut key in a safe place, and have easy access to it in the event of a puncture or whenever you need to remove the alloy wheels for a spot of maintenance. Brake servicing, for example, will necessitate the need to remove a wheel, and this can quickly turn into a problem if you don’t have the locking wheel nut key, what happens next in this instance?
Putting it simply you are stuck, and could be persuaded to attempt a locking wheel nut removal without the right tool or the knowledge you require to complete the job in a safe, non-damaging way.
Avoiding the risks
So how do you avoid the problem of not having a wheel nut key which enables you to remove alloy wheels at will? There are a number of scenarios which could place you in the position of not having immediate access to a wheel nut locking key including all of these instances:
• Damaged Bolt Key
• Lost Key
• No Key With Car
These examples are more common than you might think and no matter how careful you are, you could easily find yourself in any of these tricky situations.
Damage to the wheel nut key
Wheel nut keys are tough but they’re not impervious to damage. Be a little rough when using the key, or fit it to a nut that has been over-tightened and you could easily damage the metal rendering the key useless and leaving you with an alloy that’s still locked and secured to the car.
Lost Key
This is very likely to happen if you fail to keep the locking wheel nut key in a safe place. The chances are you’ll only look for the key in the event of an emergency, such as a flat tyre, and this is often when panic sets it as you realise you have no idea where the item in question is.
To avoid this, establish where the key is and keep it somewhere safe in your car. Popular locations to store wheel nut keys include:
• Glove boxes
• Ashtrays
• Door pockets
• Coin holder compartments
• Secret storage sections in foot wells
• Hidden compartments in boot
• Spare wheel housing
• Cup holders
No Key with car
If you buy a car fitted with a set of locking wheel nuts always make sure the unlocking tool is included in the sale. This is especially important if you buy a pre-used car from a private buyer. Always check the alloys, see if they are fitted with locking wheel nuts and if they are, ask the seller where the key is before you drive away, and establish the unlocking tool fits the nut to prevent any future problems.
What happens if the locking wheel nut is missing, damaged or not fit for purpose?
Okay, worst case scenario, you haven’t got the locking wheel nut, what do you do next? Before you panic, have you thoroughly checked through the car? Look in the popular locations we mentioned earlier to see if the wheel nut has been stored there. If you have purchased the car from a private seller or a dealer, they might have stowed it away in a safe spot, fail to find it and you could always contact them again to see if they know where the locking wheel nut tool is.
Should there be no sign of the locking wheel nut key, don’t panic, you can still have the nuts safely and swiftly removed with the assistance of a professional locking wheel nut removal service.
The same applies if the locking wheel nuts have become damaged after somebody has unsuccessfully tried to remove them. It might look serious but this problem is easily overcome by an expert locking wheel nut removal technician.
Find a fast, affordable solution for locking wheel nuts
The moment you realise you have damaged locking wheel nuts or misplaced keys, contact us here at the Locking Wheelnut Removal Service in Birmingham. We provide mobile services throughout the Midlands and offer a quick and hassle-free removal for locking wheel nuts on all makes and models of cars.
